About

$6,376

92

This projects goal is to now manufacture 100 RepRap Therminator 5 hot ends.

Thanks to everybody that has helped us meet our funding goal ! We are in good position to have everything ready on time and complete a successful project.

Thank you again

Tony

Ready to go 18 May 2013

Thank you everybody again. Looks like we are good to go with the final stage and making 100 therminator 5 hot ends. I will send out a detailed survey to to collect all needed information to do what we have to do on 20 May 2013.

Some release notes:

* If your looking for a Bowden Extruder set-up please let me know right away , we will be putting threads in for Bowden Extruder but do not have a standard yet and will probably have to customize so will be delivered later. I am planing on going that rout for my printing as well.

* If you take ANY therminator "associated extruder" above 280 C its anyone's game depending on your specific extruder set-up. We are working to better define the specifics on thermal failure around the Hotend itself however associated parts tend to fail before the Hotend does.

* The hot end has been pushed to 280 C in active and 310 C in a passive mode without catastrophic failure. And it still worked after cooling and restart.

* This device is a fire hazard if not assembled and connected properly specifically without electrical temp logic and thermal protection the therminator can start a fire.

* This is a single part for complex and loosely defined additive printing technology. You will be provided all necessarily and friendly support to connect and run the Therminator Hot end. Your results will vary depending on you. That is kind of the idea :)

* Please be careful the plastic is under pressure and has high heat. This is dangerous on a good day. Over 310 degrees C the Hotend can and has been observed "popping" the brass end off with hot plastic being ejected form the body.

* The logic electronics are coupled to high current transistors Incorrect wiring of the hot end can smoke your controller your board or start a fire.

On that note: This is such an elegant and powerful technology for the whole world and I believe we can help everyone to have new ideas, innovation, opportunities and provide the things people need, especially for people in tough places and times of the world. Why not ? like shoes, plates, cups , artistic renderings, musical instruments, appliance replacement parts , and plenty of toys for kids , things I have taken for granted my whole life,

We are just getting started.

Tony May

Updates today :

It appears we may need a tee-shirt contest or many redesigns as that is our first real drama on the therminator 5 :) The design is open for now

I hope to have video of final production run assembly instructions by 15 June.

Donations will go to cover cost for parts and material to complete the project. The brass heat cores have just been delivered and are perfect.

Why did I make the Therminator ? After 3D printing with a RepRap Prusa for a year we found that most of the hot ends had not met our needs for more demanding print jobs. I am not going to name any names but the lower end models for example have thing walls and tended to clog and eventually crack. The others come in kits with all kinds of parts, screws etc and limited instructions. Many are expensive and have complicated designs. So we made a better one. After making several of them for other friends and makers by hand we decided to spread the word and give more people a new and better option in RepRap Hot Ends.

If you want to print bigger and faster prints with dependability some changes needed to be made.

The design

RepRap open source hardware

Works with ABS and PLA. We are in the process of trying it with nylon based filament.

3mm and 1.75 mm filament

.35mm and .5mm nozzles.

Cut away

Top

Side

Side2

This is a open source design intended for the RepRap community. I will post the full design with drawings and assembly steps on RepRap.org for public use at the end of the project. We have had feedback both good and bad about how, what and were this design comes from. So I am adding additional history on why it is what it is as time permits. The idea is to leverage what I felt was the best of designs I had used and researched and then toss out what did not work well or was a hassle to deal with. Each piece of the design had different prototypes made and tested. A long list of failures was soon to be created. The functionality of a hot end is really pretty basic stuff the devil is in the details.

A small collection of what could have been. Some lived longer than others.

Uses SeeMeCNC nozzles that are always available and cost less than other nozzles you have to buy (if in stock)

The mount is common for most RepRap Mendel and Prusa extruders.

Credits

SeeMeCNC - Early on we decided they have the best nozzles for the tough printing we wanted to do. Did not really want to be in the nozzle business. We tried other nozzles, made our own nozzles and even tried a glass nozzle at one point ( kaboom ! fail). The SeeMeCNC nozzle has a nice tight (standard) thread count that reduces leakage is a appropriate size not too big or small and just does the job. They are also pioneers in 3D printer design with a unique complete printer solution, hardware and Hotends. They have introduced several of the features that are leveraged for the Therminator 5 and provided them to the RepRap community over the years.

RepRap.org - For providing the world with a huge collection of information, designs and innovation for 3D printing. A open community of people helping people make a better world.

DNZ Products - They have been a huge help with getting the heater machined. As a group of technical guys with absolutely no machining knowledge they put up with more than enough dumb questions have been patient and delivered ahead of time.

Stress Testing

Testing was conducted on a custom stretch Prusa 2 Air for big, long running and demanding prints. A heat failure test was also conducted and showed the Hot End would first melt the plastic bracket ( we have replaced with a sweet aluminum one) then the extruder carriage would melt. After that the plastic would fossilize in the body and star smoking. The hot end did not fail until I had to shut it off to prevent a fire. Cleaned it up had to replace the Teflon sleeve and went back to printing.

Our next project in the works :)

We are also working on a marketable version of the Stretch Prusa Air for our next project. It will print double the height of printers on the market today in the same price range.

RepRap Prusa Air with Therminator

Kit Design we are working on. We will also provide a how to assemble video.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $65 or more
About $65

By pledging $60 or more you will receive a complete Therminator 5 kit with everything you need to assemble a Therminator Hot End. With instructions and video. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $65 or more
About $65

By pledging $65 or more you will receive a complete Therminator 5 kit with everything you need to assemble a Therminator Hot End. With instructions and video. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site. 1.75 or 3mm filament .35 or .5 nozzle

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $80 or more
About $80

By pledging $80 or more you will receive One Therminator 5 hot end assembled and tested. . With instructions and video. Solidworks object and drawing files. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site. A commemorative Therminator T-shirt
1.75 or 3mm filament
.35 or .5 nozzle

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $80 or more
About $80

By pledging $80 or more you will receive One Therminator 5 hot end assembled and tested. . With instructions and video. Solidworks object and drawing files. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site. A commemorative Therminator T-shirt 1.75 or 3mm filament .35 or .5 nozzle

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $80 or more
About $80

By pledging $80 or more you will receive One Therminator 5 hot end assembled and tested. . With instructions and video. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site. A commemorative Therminator T-shirt ** NOTE: Only 3mm filament type .35 or .5 nozzle

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $80 or more
About $80

We now have 1.75mm filament supply !!!
By pledging $80 or more you will receive One Therminator 5 1.75mm filament hot end assembled and tested. . With instructions and video. We will also list you as a Therminator 5 contributor on our site. You will get >>
A commemorative Therminator-5 T-shirt
.35 or .5mm nozzle